Ship portraits from Japan began, in the 1920s and ‘30s to take on a more realistic and detailed appearance than the stylized renderings of ships created by Japanese artists in the 19TH Century. One of the best known of the Japanese ship painters from this period was H. Shimidzu.
Painting from a studio in Yokohama, Shimidzu created paintings in the popular oriental medium of using watercolor on silk. The majority of his paintings we have seen feature attractive and detailed images of merchant ships. In this instance Shimidzu has portrayed an American three masted luxury yacht under full sail probably cruising Japanese waters sometime in the 1920s.
Full rigged sail/steam yachts of this size and grandeur became popular around the 1880s and were based on a romanticized version of the great clippers, but adding the luxury of steam technology. They continued to be built until the early 1930s when the magnificent four masted SEA CLOUD, owned by Marjorie Merriweather Post, was launched as the last of her kind.
Signed LR: H. Shimidzu
